Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1887-02-23
QUEEN OF THE AIR.

QUEEN OF THE AIR.
Music as Nervine for a Pcrforme
on the Trapeze.
''Now, Fll tell you." said the circu
man, when music is nerve tonic an
a necessity, that is to the rope and wiz
men who learn the business 10y musi
beats. One two, three; tum, tum
tum. ii fiddle, and you drop, see?
"Clrcus people wouldn't think o
going into the ring without fiidles an
trombones. Why, just think of doin
all the climbing and swinging In mir
air to dead silence. 1t amt natural
1t amt. The funniest part of it is tha
we have 10 have the same music yea
In and year out. Folks say, Lord
why don't they get new tunes? I'm
dead tired of that old trapeze waltz.
But if they knew the reason thel
wouldn't. Nothing breaks a man III
like new music. It's worse than get
ting strange partner on the bar. I'vt
had enough of it, anyway. Feel thu:
w Gil, ludl y
broken collar-bone, along OF not having
nv regular show tune. 1 shan't forget
1t IN a hurry. 1t laid me up in Aubu
querque, n. NJ, better'n two month!
last year. and cost me all the rocks
had put by for rainy weather. A chaI
as did the frontier act with me through
Texas once, mighty nigh got away with
me out of spite. and that settled it so faI
as the brother act and me was con
cerned. But last year the manager got
it into his head that l ought to have a
woman on the sofa with me, 1t would
draw better, and all that. / reared
about awhile, and gave in, when he
fetched in a pale, knocked-kneed little
woman, with one glass eye. She was
as pretty piece of womankind in iig-
ure a, you ever saw, but ugly as home
made sin. A cowboy had murdered
her husband in Denver, and her name
was Roxana Coleman, bat she was
billed as Mile Camargo, the Queen of
the Air.
Queen OF nothingl She was the
clumsle5t mortal | ever struck, but |
worked with her like horse, getting
her in harness.
''She was as shaky at the last rehear-
sal as cat with st. Vitus' dance.
That settled me, and L began to pass
in brandy. The worst you ever tack
led. More brandy is generally my rue
when 1 set in, and the tumblers and
Bill Reddy, the ringmaster took me to
one side about Coleman's little one
eyed widow. Bnt just had to have
more-that was all there was to it.
Here is where the music comes in live
ly. A fellow goes by the tune and
knows by certain note how to change
hands, go backward, etc. When the
cymbals clash you drop dead and scare
all the women plumb into conniption
fits. He's all o. X. with the old tune,
you see, but new ones make him wild
and panicky. I'd have been all right
reckon, but had to watch
Roxana. and she was as crazy as bed
bug at the sight of that house, packed
with cowboys, Indians and greasers
yelling like devils. AS for me, the
lights all flsred together, there was
birthstone over the whole show. Reddy's
voice sounped like fog-horn. l went
up the rope to the bar like creased
lightning. kicking off my sawdust
as Roxie came up hand over
fist.
That Internal band began to pay
the music for Mad. Dalton's menage
act with four white horses. 1t knocked
me off my box entirely. Roxana saw
how | fumbled at and missed every
trick, and she screamed in my ear
Look out, Jiml don't drop me, for the
Lord sakeI You'll murder me right
here if you do
81 came tarnal nigh not catching bet
feet as she dropped between mine. The
music wanged away, and L could see
the four white horses with pink eyes
and wavy tails cavorting round the
ring. Roxana seemed a stuffed doll in
red trunks and spingled fringe. quit
and listened to the horse tune,
grabbing the Widow Coleman anyway
that came handy. fancied people
were shouting to me from below and
Bill stood aghast. Roxana's heart beat
time with the drum. / could hear 1t
all at once and that tickled me. l knew
she was praying when she slid down my
body, and fell, locking her feet in
mine, the old flash trick. There's
place, YOU know, where in this double
act both performersl let go from opposite
sides OF the bar, when the cymbals
clash, and catch in the knee socket on
.hs bar, was as happy as a negro in
4 feather bed. forgot to lock my
knees over and down went the Queen
Of the Air with loud shrek, me after
ler. Well sir, it's funny how fast a
nan can think when he's falling.
remember that smiled as thought OF
low the widows glass eye would be
,tove up; then l quit thinking at all,
or about six weeks 1t seemed to me, |
Y on see, to get even with me, the first
7iolincello got on spree and ran away |
With my trapeze music. L mauled him
or it in Frisco this summer.
"But the Queen of the Air, what |
,ecame OF her?" asked the reporter,
,reathlessly. l.
.sWho? Roxana? All, you can't
I'LL half. breed Mexican woman. She
.ot another eye, and had her ankles
10Th tinkered up. She gave up the
business, though. Lost confidence in
{, somehow. The last time l heard Of
aoxana she WAS doing the Hindoo
Princess, feeding snakes and juggling
With boas IN a dime museum. She's
lead gone on the show business, but
lot the trapeze. 1 carry my Attle old
une in my grlpsack now, you can bet;
ont do any more funny business on
he trapeze to horse music, not for Jim.
haven't got MORN half my share OF
left"
Proverbs of the Talmud.